She smiled, pleased with the flattery. "So I am a restorer of youth. Do I look young?" "There is a glass." She turned towards it, catching the reflection of her face shadowed by the plume against her hair. "Your eyes are older," said Nevins. "They look as if they had seen things, but your mouth is young. It could never hold an expression long enough for it to impress a line. Heavens! It is a mouth that would madden one to model, because of the impossibility! It is twenty mouths in one!" "You never liked my nose," said Mariana, her eyes still on the glass. "Do you remember how you straightened it in the poster?" "I have the poster still." "And I have the nose." Then she laughed. "It is so delightful to be here," she said. Ardly and Nevins talked rapidly, running over the years one by one, giving glimpses of the changes in their lives, meeting Mariana's gay reserve with fuller confidence. They had both grown boyish and more buoyant, and as they spoke they felt like an incoming tide the warmth of Mariana's manner. She seemed more lovable to them, more generous, more utterly to be desired. Her nature had ripened amid the luxury of her life, which, instead of rendering her self-centred, as poverty had done, had left her more responsive to the needs of others. She threw herself into the records of their lives with an impulsive fervor, stopping them at intervals to question as to details, and covering the past eight years with sympathetic search-lights. And yet beneath the superficial animation in her voice there was a restless thrill, and the eagerness with which she turned to trivial interests was but the nervous veil that hid the weariness in her heart. It was as if she plunged into the thoughts of others that she might put away the memory of herself. "So you have become a politician?" she said to Ardly. "I am so interested!" "You wouldn't be if you knew as much of it as I do," remarked Nevins. "You'd be ashamed. It makes me blush every time I see his name on a ticket. I consider it an offence against the paths of our fathers." "Why, Mr. Ryder told me you were working for him," Mariana returned; "but he did say that he couldn't reconcile it with your common-sense. He's for the other side, you know." "So am I!" groaned Nevins; "but what has a man's convictions to do with his vote?" "Or with his election?" laughed Ardly. "But Nevins is an unwilling accomplice of my aspirations." "I wouldn't call them aspirations," remonstrated Nevins. Mariana buttoned her glove and rose. "I am going to work for you," she said, "and my influence is not to be scorned. I have not one vote, but dozens. I shall elect you." "Don't," pleaded Nevins; "it will soil your hands!" "Oh, I can wash them!" she laughed; "and it is worth a few smuts. I shall tell Mr. Ryder to canvass for you," she added. Ardly shouted, "Good heavens! He is one of the best fighters the Republicans have!" Mariana smiled inscrutably.